Darktail's Antecedent
by Troublestripe
Summary: SPOILERS FOR A VISION OF SHADOWS! One-shot story. Darktail's story from the very beginning over how he became the most murderous villain the Clans have ever faced.


**MAJOR SPOILERS FROM ' A VISION OF SHADOWS' SERIES**

Darktail's Antecedent

Soft clouds pulled away to reveal a brilliant moon. Only a few days from being full, it greeted the awakened night with a sheen that illuminated the meadows and plains below while revealing two cats. They travelled onward, undaunted by their cover of darkness being stripped away or the sweet scent of heather that saturated the air.

A two-moon-old white kit with black spots around his eyes sniffed a heather bud curiously. His black tail raised straight up with excitement and his blue eyes gleamed full of the adventure he was on. There was so much to see and smell but his mother was persistent.

"Little one," A gray she-cat scolded softly from a fox-length ahead. Her voice shook. She was nervous. "Warriors don't get distracted by flowers. Come along."

The white kit pulled away from the flower bush slowly before he pushed ahead of his mother, unfazed by her worried tone. A small hunger pang struck softly that warned him to conserve his energy. He wanted to complain but remembered his siblings starving wails and how much they have upset his mother in the past. The kit stayed silent. Warriors don't complain about hunger.

"Smoke," the kit stopped and spun around while addressing his mother. "Is it true that the Clans have a pile of fresh-kill as tall as a tree?"

A glint of amusement lit her blue eyes as she responded, "Not that big but close. They have heaps and piles of rabbits and mice, even when the snow falls. Once you become a warrior you will never go hungry again."

Satisfied with that answer, the white kit bounced forward again. He took notice as the undergrowth began to thin out and the grass grew taller and taller. Ever since a fox kidnapped one of his siblings, the white kit always tried to notice everything around him. He was always the first to see change in anything afterwards. Nothing has snuck up on the alert kit since. He stood up on his toes to peer over the endless stretch of tall grass.

"I wonder what my name will be?" the kit mused.

Smoke was quiet for a moment before she replied, "I'm sure Onewhisker will give you a name fit for a warrior."

A sharp smell crossed the kit's nose. His pelt fluffed warily as he sniffed curiously at the air. Smoke noticed her kit's change of behavior and rushed forward defensively.

"What's that smell?" he squeaked as she approached.

Smoke stopped hesitantly and parted her jaws. After several deep breathes her tail curled with delight, "It's the WindClan border." Smoke's purr rumbled deeply as she nuzzled his ear. Her breath warmed the kit to the tip of his tail. "Wonderful scenting my little warrior. Now come, we must find Onewhisker."

The kit trailed after Smoke with a proud bounce in his step from her praise. His mind wondered to stories his mother had shared of the warriors in the moor as they entered their territory. Cats whom never felt hunger or experienced the loss of a sibling to foxes. Warriors who were always warm and safe from danger without depending on Twolegs for their freedom. Those who were heroes like his father, Onewhisker.

The white kit became aware of the gentle rustle of the long grass as they approached a wide meadow. The wind in his fur made him feel vibrant and free. No walls from the Twoleg den or trees to confine him and block his path. A purr rumbled as he soaked in the sights and smells of his future home.

An intense desire to run hit him. His paws itched to race the wind that tugged at his pelt but before he gathered his muscles to sprint he noticed something different about the air. The breeze was gently blowing away from them but the patch of brown grass among the yellow shifted ever so slightly in the wrong direction. Puzzled, he stopped and stared while trying to understand what trick he was seeing. The kit turned to bring his mother's attention to it.

In a blur, a brown pelt rushed forward as swift and smooth as the wind. Smoke hissed in surprise while blocking her kit as she launched herself in between him and the stranger. Then, in the same instant, she relaxed.

"Onewhisker," Smoke's voice was thick with relief but her tail twitched nervously.

The young kit tilted his ears forward as he peered curiously around his mother. In front of her stood a light brown tabby with wide amber eyes. Moons of moor winds made his pelt slick and glossy against his lithe frame while outlining smooth muscles made for running. The white kit thought fleetingly that Onewhisker was smaller than he imagined. His scent reminded the kit of rabbits, wind, and the heather he smelled on the way here, but something sour mingled with it too. He couldn't place the scent but he was familiar with it.

Onewhisker crouched low to keep beneath the tall grass while keeping his alarmed eyes on Smoke. "I told you to go back, Smoke," he hissed quietly. The kit noticed as his eyes darted from Smoke to scan the moor as if the blades of grass were listening in. "You shouldn't be here."

"I have to talk to you," Smoke meowed firmly. The white kit was surprised by her tone. Smoke sounded determined and unrelenting. Onewhisker stared at her for a moment before nodding and turning into the grass from the direction they came. Smoke followed with her kit close behind.

Once they passed the border, Onewhisker noticeably relaxed some and the sour smell drifted away from him. Onewhisker stopped and sat down facing Smoke while casually cleaning a paw. The white kit settled behind his mother but peered out just enough to see Onewhisker. Despite his calm demeanor, the kit could tell Onewhisker was uncomfortable by the way his pelt prickled along his spine.

Smoke immediately began talking, "After you turned me away from the Clans I began to travel back home. I was half-way back to my Twolegs' nest before my kits started to come." Onewhisker stopped cleaning his paws while he stared at Smoke with concern. "I was alone and I didn't have any help."

"Surely your Twolegs," Onewhisker began but Smoke's hiss interrupted him.

"I had no one! Not a cat, not a Twoleg, not even a mouse was around! I was too far away! Our kits died, one-by-one, two starved from hunger while the third was taken by a fox while I hunted on the journey home. I had to watch them all die because I couldn't catch enough to feed them and I wasn't able to defend them alone," Smoke's mew had turned to a low miserable moan.

Onewhisker's eyes grew sad and full of emotion as he listened to Smoke. He padded forward as if to comfort her but Smoke stepped back, pushing the white kit back with her. Her son could sense a tinge of resentment coursing through Smoke's pelt but her tone gave away nothing as she mewed, "Our kits died… All of them besides one."

Onewhisker's eyes darted to the kit behind her back as if noticing him for the first time. His amber eyes filled with a mix emotion of sadness and wonder. The kit stared back unblinkingly with his mother's blue eyes as Smoke continued, "We went back to my Twolegs but only until our kit was old enough to travel."

This was the moment Smoke had her son practice for. The kit padded forward with his head and black tail held high and proud, just as she taught him, before coming to a stop in-between the full-grown cats. The white kit stood as tall as he could on his toes to look as big as possible.

Onewhisker's ears flattened, eyes darting from Smoke to the kit and back, as he realized where she was going. Quickly, Smoke spoke to keep him from interrupting, "This is your son. Take him back to your home. Give him a name fit for a warrior as great as you. He's still young enough to learn the Warrior Code. I am giving him to you. He is your kin and deserves a wondrous life after what we've been through."

The white kit noticed the sour scent again. It was over-powering but he recognized it this time as Onewhisker's fear-scent. Slowly, he fell back off his toes and onto his pads as he became confused. Onewhisker's stories were honored by the cats back at the Twoleg place. The kit had been told noble tales of his father's bravery. Onewhisker had saved lives because he was fearless. He was a hero. Warriors are not supposed to be scared of anything.

Onewhisker stared at his son in silence as the kit tried to understand what could possibly have frightened his father.

Finally, Onewhisker parted his jaws to break the silence and whispered, "No. I can't take him."

The white kit's fur stood on ends as he froze in horror. Pain seared through his heart and pride like hot claws as Onewhisker looked at him with pity before turning his gaze away. Smoke hissed with disgust, "He's your son. He has warrior blood in his veins! He can scent and hear better than any full-grown cat I have ever seen! His paws are almost as big as yours already! He's going to be a big and great warrior! He deserves this after all that you put us through, banishing me away, leaving our kits to die!"

Desperate, Onewhisker snarled, "I never asked you to come to the Clans. That was your decision. He's soft just like you. He won't make it."

Hurt in his father's words brought the white kit forward to boldly face him. In order to defend himself he mewled proudly, "I saw you coming before you jumped out of the grass. I smelled the scent line before Smoke did. I can run just as fast as her too and her legs are longer!"

Onewhisker only stared at him with torn pity. Smoke padded forward to face him. "This is our only surviving kit that came from our love. Don't make our kits deaths be in vain. Take him. Love him like you once loved me. I won't ever bother you again."

"No," Onewhisker mewed softly. "Take him back to your Twolegs."

The pain in the white kit's chest seared as he burst with a yowl of wronged fury, "You're my father! We are kin! I want to be a great warrior like you!"

Silence fell among the three cats. Hurt and pain swirled in the white kit as he mentally pleaded with his father to take everything he said back. Onewhisker stared back, his jaws parted and closed over again as if he had something to say but not the courage to say it.

Suddenly the wind shifted direction and with it the kit could smell a small group of cats padding closer. Their voices whispered with the wind. Onewhisker's fear-scent flared as he suddenly shifted and snarled, "You are a kittypet just like your mother and just as soft! You will never become a warrior. Go home."

Onewhisker turned and pounced into the grass to leave, but Smoke leapt in front of him blocking his path. She crouched low, her gray pelt bristled making her look bigger than Onewhisker. Those blue eyes that held so much love had darkened, her pupils narrowed down to nothing but a sliver filled with anger. Her ears flattened onto her head and her lips curled over her fangs into a vicious sneer. Onewhisker bristled in alarm while the white kit crouched low into the grass out of sight. He had never seen his mother look so fearsome.

Smoke snarled savagely, each word dipped in venom, "You abandoned me and now you turned away your son. You have never loved us! You only loved how much we loved you!"

Guilt twisted across Onewhisker's muzzle. The voices in the wind were getting louder. Slowly, he stepped around Smoke to approach the voices as he whispered, "I'm so sorry."

"No, you are not," Smoke spoke with such menace that Onewhisker's ears flattened defensively. "If you were sorry, you would take your son with you!"

"I can't take him."

"Coward!" Smoke turned, keeping her eyes on Onewhisker as he padded around, closer to the border. "I will raise him on my own and teach him to destroy everything you have ever truly loved. He will hate the father that rejected him and spread darkness on each Clan, one at a time, until WindClan is the only one left to witness what you caused. They will hate you once they realize the cat who destroyed your Clans was your own kin! Even more so when they learn that you rejected _your_ son the chance of being a valiant warrior, turning him into your darkest enemy! You will have nothing!"

Onewhisker looked back at Smoke with guilt, sorrow, and pity in his gaze. With a powerful leap, he melted out of sight into the tall grass.

Smoke and her son stayed crouched as if froze from shock. As time began to pass, the whispers drifted away and Smoke began to shake with anger. Her white kit started to mewl with sadness that wore down his heart. Finally, he couldn't contain it and wailed with a broken-heart, "My father didn't want me! Onewhisker didn't even give me a name!"

Smoke turned to approach her kit, but something inside her had changed. She was driven with a new purpose. Smoke stood over her son while he mewed and suddenly noticed every feature he had inherited from his father all the way from his pointed ears and thin, long tail. As Onewhisker's betrayal rang in her mind, Smoke resisted the urge to get close or comfort her distraught kit. He needed to become strong and independent for her idea to work.

Smoke spoke each word slowly and carefully, "Your father feared you for no reason. He rejected you in a way kin should never do. We are going to change that. You will show him that turning you away was the biggest mistake of his life."

The white kit stopped mewling as Smoke spoke. Her sure words comforted him. Slowly he curled his black tail around his body as he began to shake with sadness although he remained silent. After a few moments, Smoke whispered, "Darktail." The white kit lifted his head up miserably and looked into his mother's blue eyes. Smoke gazed back as hate for Onewhisker and his Clans began to surface from her heart. "This injustice will not go unpunished."

 **Might continue this if a lot of people like it. I have a long story idea for it that continues after this scene all the way to his travels to SkyClan but I'm waiting to see what reaction I get.. I hope you all enjoyed it and thank you for reading!**


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